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Visit Date: 12/16/05
Steps: 17,452
Parks Miles: 13.19
Time in Parks: 9:00

 
Trip Log:

Was greeted at the parking structure by an orange construction sign saying Happy Holidays, that was nice, then it flashed to Disneyland Full, not so good.. then rounding the corner the rest of the way the line of cars was nearly to the end of the garage. Got in line (probably close to 15-20 cars and every lane open. Finally got into the garage and directed to a space on Donald, not too bad. Headed for the trams. Got on the first tram that pulled up, still not bad. No real line at security. Decided to head for DCA first. Walked down the backlot and around a bit then back and through the farm area on my way to the Bay area. Not much to look at so wandered around GRR and into the Grand Californian. Looked through the lobby and then walked through Downtown Disney and out to the Disneyland hotel. Walked through the lobby and then out to the dancing waters area to see what if anything was going on there, nothing. Continued back by the Lost Bar and then to DD. Hopped on the monorail to Disneyland (no real wait again). Exited the monorail and walked through Tomorrowland, the hub, Adventureland, and NOS on my way to Haunted Mansion to grab a Fastpass. Hopped on the train to Toontown. Saw there was no line for Small World and went for a cruise around the world. Walked back through Fantasyland, around the Castle, then out to the Big Thunder Ranch area. Back through the hub and around the Matterhorn, jumped on the Monorail for a round-trip journey. Had 10 minutes until the Flag retreat, so bee-lined it from the monorail through the hub, Frontierland, around the Rivers of America and out to Haunted Mansion to grab another Fastpass. Picked up the pace and cut through Adventureland and down Main Street USA arriving just as the Star Spangled Banner started to play. Watched the Flag Retreat and hung out on Main Street until the Tree Lighting. Watched the show and then wandered around Main Street for a while before heading down to the Castle for some night shots. Caught the tale end of a performance at Carnation (I stopped since the soundtrack they were using was the Holiday Believe show, still miss that) and then continued on to the Ranch area. Grabbed some pictures and wandered around the trail and out to NOS for some more pictures. Back to Main Street USA and Corn Dogs for dinner. After dinner walked to Tomorrowland and grabbed Fastpasses for Buzz. Continued on around the Matterhorn and to the Small World Mall. Saw the line was not too bad, about 20 minutes, so went on Small World Holiday. Afterward headed back through Fantasyland, cut through the Castle and Frontierland then around the Rivers of America and out to Haunted Mansion to use our Fastpasses. Then doubled back and jumped on the train. Road to Tomorrowland. Turned in our Holiday VMK quest then Walked around a bit and then decided to head over to Adventureland. Went for a ride on the Jungle Cruise then back to Main Street to grab a spot for Remember. Watched the show then joined the mass of humanity leaving the park. Luckily they opened the backstage route along the West side again so cut through there saving a long slow walk down Main Street. Headed out to the trams and back to the cars to head home.


For Comparisons to other trips or more park miles click here to visit our park Miles Section.

Note: These totals may be skewed because the pedometer is zero'd when we start and then left alone and read when we leave. So attractions, and other things may cause extra "steps" to be counted. The pedometer that we use basically measures up/down motion as a step, so if your standing in line and moving up and down it may be counting steps, etc.. so the total distances traveled and steps may be off.. so use these as rough distance comparisons between trips and they may not be accurate in terms of actual distance traveled.
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My Thoughts & Observations:

* After you read this report you may want to check out the pictorial updates in our Disneyland Resort Pictorial Update section

Hello all,

What a great day at the Disneyland Resort. The weather was on the cool side but not cold. The crowds were heavy but not as bad as "advertised". We had no real agenda or objective other than playing around with a new camera and trying to learn to use it. As you saw in the pictures I did not do too bad for the first time out with it. I was anticipating heavy crowds, based on our last two visits and the construction sign near the M&F garage did not disappoint. it said Happy Holidays then flashed to Disneyland Full. As soon as I drove into the garage I had to stop due to the line of cars to get in. Every lane appeared to be open but the line still backed up to nearly the entrance. After being fairly warned by the CM and the other sign that Disneyland was full I was expecting a jammed crowd. worse than the past two trips. Entered DCA first and found a lot of guests but not a large crowd. Soarin was under an hour as was Screamin. Tower was only 13 minutes, well less actually. So headed over to Disneyland expecting wall to wall people and was greeted with a suprise.. a lot of guests but not gridlock. Lines seemed to be about average for a busy day but not a super busy day. Haunted Mansion was between 30-45 minutes. Small World was well under 30 minutes every time we went by. Buzz around 30. Indy under an hour. Pirates about 15-20. So not bad. The park did get much more crowded for Remember, but not the gridlock like last week.

Jason

Trip logs and mileage reports are in the Park Miles section.

Notes:

  • Not much new to comment on this week. With only a week between visits not that much has changed. I do think Disney was ready for a large crowd this week and either it did not materialize or the crowd control measures did the trick. A couple examples. One is DCA was kept open until 10pm and there was a performance of the Electrical Parade, this helped to stem the sudden influx of guests as the park closed. After the second Christmas Fantasy Parade the crowd control barriers started to appear around the park such as ropes that encircled the hub area to keep the walkways and guests lining up for Remember separate, the benches in Frontierland that normally form the walkway seemed to be even more numerous. There seemed to be CMs everywhere helping to direct guests and keep the crowd moving. This seemed to work as the lead up to the fireworks did not seem to have the total gridlock of last week. After the show ended and nearly everyone started for the exits some gridlock surfaced as some guests were trying to get back into the park while the masses were trying to leave. We got stuck for a couple minutes then a CM climbed up a tree and yelled something and waved his arms then all of a sudden the crowd seemed to move and we were able to work our way to the backstage walkway on the west side of the street again and exit the park. One suggestion we have is that they make an announcement before the start of the show asking guests who are going to head back into the park to use the east side of the street (in other words keep to your right just like when your driving). Other than that its just patience and some common sense on the part of guests to weather these large crowds.

  • While roaming the resort we decided to give the Virtual Magic Kingdom Holiday Quest a try (you download the questions from the vmk website http://www.vmk.com). We found the questions on this one to be really challenging and quite fun. This was the most fun we have had doing an in park quest and I think we have done almost all of them over the past several months. For those of you visiting the parks I would recommend giving it a try.. (WDW has one too).

  • Concluded our visit watching Remember and the Snow fall on Main Street. The snow effect worked great and it looked as if a mini blizzard hit the park, guess the temperatures and wind were perfectly aligned for once. After hearing the Believe in Holiday Magic soundtrack (this was the fireworks show the past two years) it really hit me how much I enjoyed that show and missed the holiday music this year. As I have mentioned before I missed the show, but this really seemed to hit home, not sure why that sparked it. As I mentioned last time I brought this up I think Remember Dreams Come True is one of the best Disney firework displays ever but around the holidays it just leaves me wanting something different. I think the Wishes segments could become some sort of Holiday tribute or maybe a different finale that could lead to a better segway to the Snow or something.. its just awkward to me.

Be sure to check out the picture update that goes with this Geekspeak column, it can be found in our Disneyland Resort Pictorial Update section

Send comments, questions, any other email to: disneygeek@disneygeek.com
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